Trebor Mahtal had well and truly rewritten Bolton Wanderers history as, four years on from the departure of Big Sam Allardyce, he led the Trotters to their maiden English title. But he wasn’t content with that, as he eyed up defending the title and trying to improve the side’s fortunes in European competitions.
There was exciting news off the field as the Bolton board announced that work on the Jay-Jay Okocha Arena was underway and the new £113m stadium would be complete by the summer of 2029. So we’ll fly through the next couple of seasons to continue with this save before moving into the new stadium.
Chelsea again came in with a ludicrous bid for a Bolton player, offering £40m for Kevin Nolan, who struggled to get in the team last season. Mahtal continued his focus on signing promising youngsters by paying a hefty £41m to bring in a 17-year-old Harry Kane from Spurs. He was joined by a monstrous wonderkid, and the first featured newgen of this save, Iván Domínguez for just £2.6m from Independiente and Nolan’s replacement Jack Wilshere for £14m from Arsenal.
Bolton’s Title Defence Begins
Chelsea were so unhappy at missing out on the title that they went out and signed Lionel Messi for £175m! While Man UFC sold both Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to AC Milan for £159m and £76m and Arsenal signed Daniele De Rossi for £65m. Bolton’s odds were shortened to 16/1 with the bookies predicting a 5th-place finish. Chelsea unsurprisingly remain 2/1 favourites followed by Liverpool, who finished 8th last season, at 4/1, Man UFC at 9/2 and Arsenal at 5/1.
Bolton again started the season against Derby and the young starlet Kane scored 39 minutes into his debut in a 2-0 win. That set the tone for a flying start as they won the opening 10 games, including 2-1 wins at home to Arsenal and Spurs and Anelka scoring the only goal at Liverpool, before losing 1-0 at Everton and 2-1 at Man UFC.
Midfielder Max Noble got the Wanderers back on track with just their second win against Chelsea in 11 meetings. And that proved the catalyst to send Bolton on their way, defending their title with ease by 8 points from Arsenal. They got 91 points, 9 fewer than last season, and only scored 71, which was boosted by scoring 11 in the final two games when Mahtal trialled a more offensive approach, and conceded 21. Chelsea, ridiculously, finished 5th after signing Messi and Nolan, who only played one league game, and loaning out Vaz Té.
In the Champions League, Bolton got another decent set of fixtures and started in style with a 6-0 thumping of Fenerbahce led by an Anelka hat trick. They lost at Barca but wins over Dortmund, Bremen, Olympiacos and Red Star sent them into the last 16 in 7th place. Marseille were dismissed 5-2 on aggregate but Barca again had too much for them in the quarter finals, cruising to a 5-2 aggregate win.
Into Mahtal’s 6th Season At Bolton
A big blow saw goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen decide to retire at the age of 37. He called it a day after 498 league appearances for Bolton, just 20 short of Eddie Hopkinson’s all-time club record. In Mahtal’s five seasons, he conceded 125 in 181 league games and kept 100 clean sheets. He was also named the best goalkeeper in the world and won the Premier League Golden Glove three times.
Bolton again cashed in big courtesy of Chelsea, who came in with £60m for winger Jonathan de Guzmán, who was terrible last season. And Mahtal didn’t see too much need for improvement, other than replacing Jussi with Colombian wonderkid Juan Murillo, who joined for £1.1m from América de Cali, who joined exciting 6ft 8in striker Jan Schreier in the first team. Then in January, they added Radamel Falcao to their striker options for £8m from River.
Bolton made a good start as Gareth Bale’s hat trick earned their first Community Shield win against Derby and two assists for Kane and Domínguez defeated Sheff U 2-1 in the league opener. They started the season in scintillating form, going 13 games unbeaten before a 2-0 loss at Liverpool, then Kane and Schreier strikes led a 5-1 hammering of West Ham. The big Czech was in inspired form, coming in for the injured Anelka and bagging four braces through December to send his side top of the league.
However, he soon had competition as Falcao bagged a debut hat trick to inspire a 3-1 win at struggling Villa. Indeed, Mahtal’s rich attacking options pushed him into an offensive 3-4-3 approach with Falcao and Schreier playing as advanced forwards either side of Kane as the deep-lying forward. That worked nicely as they dominated Chelsea 3-0, with Falcao getting the opener before Kane’s second-half brace, then Spurs 3-1. The attacking intent remained as Everton and Man City were dismissed 5-1 and 4-1 led by Falcao bagging consecutive hat tricks, which took him to 12 goals in his first eight games!
The attacking approach saw Bolton over the line and, fittingly, they ran riot on Coventry to win the league in the final-ever match at the Reebok Stadium. Schreier’s hat trick and Bale’s four assists led a 9-0 thumping to claim three successive Premier League titles. They finished on 94 points with 29 wins, 7 draws and 2 defeats but levelled up their attack with 98 goals and 35 conceded.
Bolton had their best Champions League league phase yet, winning six out of eight to progress in 4th. Celtic couldn’t handle the attacking approach as Bolton won 4-1 in Scotland and 4-2 at the Reebok. A tougher tie followed against Real Madrid, but even they couldn’t handle Bolton’s attack in a superb 4-1 win at the Reebok, before they snuck through with a 3-1 defeat in Madrid. Their reward was a semi final against holders Barcelona and they started well as Bale’s cross found Kane, only for the striker to chop down Ronaldinho and allow Barca back into it. Mahtal had to go more defensive at Camp Nou and his side generally did well, only conceding to a lucky Yaya Touré goal and offering nothing in return. So the Champions League dream ended once again.
Anelka’s form fell off a cliff this season, so it was lucky Mahtal had three other strikers step up in his place. Schreier led the way with 30 goals followed by Kane (18), Falcao (16 in just 24), Bale (12) and Griezmann (9) while Bale and Kane led the assists with 19 followed by Griezmann (16), Piatti (9) and Domínguez (7). Kane’s form saw him win European Golden Boy and NxGn while Schreier won PFA Young Player of the Year.
Bolton will move into the Jay-Jay Okocha Arena in July, so we’ll do one more season to see if Mahtal can bring more success in this new era. Join us next Wednesday to discover if he can!
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